Rafael Palacios As Sortes Godello 2019
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Parker
Robert
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As Sortes takes the selection process one step further by employing grapes from vines between 35 and 92 years old from sortes situated in a natural amphitheater, fermenting them with indigenous yeasts and aging them in 500 liter French oak barrels (20% new). Each barrel is monitored closely and will be gently warmed is the fermentation shows signs of faltering. For many years this was the benchmark wine of Valdeorras, and arguably one of Spain’s best white wine, until it was unseated by Rafa’s newest cuvées: Sorte Antiga, Sorte Souto and Sorte O Soro.
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Decanter
Sampled from a vat, this is one of the best As Sortes I have ever tasted, comparable to the iconic 2011. It's a prodigy of subtleness and elegance. Everything is firmly delicate in this wine. Restrained aromas open up parsimoniously, with a steely structure like a great Burgundy, but with flinty acidity almost like Grosses Gewächs from Rheingau. Despite the fact that the sample was not yet bottled, the wine had no oak influence, just the indication that it had been aged, as top Godello must. Rafael Palacios is refining his work year after year, reaching the magic of the greatest wines. A top wine, and one to keep.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 As Sortes always wears the subtitle Val do Bibei, which is a specific and different zone of Valdeorras where Palacios has his vineyards. This comes from six small plots or "sortes" planted in the 1970s and 1980s on north-facing terraces at 680 meters in altitude and higher in the village of Santa Cruz do Bolo on poor, low-yielding sandy granite soils worked organically and biodynamically but not certified. The destemmed grapes had a short fermentation in the press, and the juice was put to ferment with indigenous yeasts in 500-liter French oak barrels, where the wine matured with lees for eight months. It's powerful (14% alcohol) and fresh (pH 2.15). It has a captivating and nuanced nose, elegant and subtle, floral and citrus with lots of herbs, faintly balsamic. It has a lively palate with great depth of flavors, perfect ripeness and great harmony. Complex, noble and harmonious, it's a very pretty vintage for this powerful white. 21,200 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2020.
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Rafael Palacios began his wine project in Valdeorras in 2004, purchasing mature vineyards of the indigenous Godello variety from older local growers. His previous experience in the area as a consultant had motivated him to try and recuperate the unique sub-zone of the Bibei Valley in the Municipality of O Bolo.
The extreme topography and the low productivity of the soil had led to the almost complete abandonment of grape production in this tiny but historic county, cultivated traditionally on terraces. The predominance of small plots is the result of inheritances drawn by lot, often out of a hat, called "Sorte" in the Galician language and the inspiration for the name As Sortes.